Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to, for example, an image forming apparatus on which an application can be installed, and a method for deleting a development area of an application program (hereinafter may be abbreviated as “app”.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, image forming apparatuses have been provided with app operation environments represented by a Java® environment. Technologies for providing expandable apps by utilizing portability of programs of Java® have been discussed. To improve a function and usability of an image forming apparatus, an app that operates in an environment such as the above-mentioned. Java® environment may be created and then installed on the image forming apparatus, so that a desired function can be implemented by this app.
As an app platform, an Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi) service platform (hereinafter may be simply referred to as OSGi), which is a Java® app platform for a built-in device, may be used. The OSGi defines a bundle as a unit of software-module management, and defines specifications for managing a life cycle including installation, start, stop, update, and uninstallation. Here, the bundle refers to a Java® module. In the present specification, a bundle is synonymous with an app. Therefore, an app may be hereinafter referred to as a “bundle”.
In such an app platform, the bundle can provide built-in functions such as copying, scanning, and printing. When or if issues arise in the bundle in this image forming apparatus, it is conceivable to make, as a remedy, an attempt to achieve a recovery, by allowing a serviceman to delete a bundle development area of a memory, and data held by the bundle. In this process, selection of a file to be deleted may be made easy to delete the file, and such a method is discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-034755.
However, in the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-034755, it may be sometimes necessary for the serviceman to determine which file is to be deleted. Therefore, it is conceivable to adopt a method for specifying and then deleting the whole or part of a bundle development area and data held by a bundle. However, when the bundle development area and the data are partially specified and then deleted, necessary data may also be deleted depending on how the data is held in the bundle development area, which is an issue.